After reading all of the the reviews here and elsewhere, we were excited to finally try Five Front, but the experience went progressively down hill from the start. Dinner for 4 started with a late comer basket of 6 pieces of thinly sliced bread, which was removed from the table without our consent prior to entrees being served. Pulled pork shoulder in guajillo (server could not explain what this was at the time of order) not only lacked any kind of interesting flavor, but taste overall. Zucchini blooms stuffed with Manchego were tasty. Genovese style pistachio-basel pesto was flavorless (not sure how that is possible with pistachio and basel as main ingredients). Short ribs, while tasty, were literally submerged in a bowl of sauce and the meat was very fatty, but the accompanying couscous was good. Striped bass was good, but nothing to write home about. Main waitress was subpar and appreared very stressed, though we were at the first service of the evening and the place was half full. We had to refill our wine glasses several times as she was not on top of the table service. The restaurant's atmosphere was very nice but the $230 bill (dinner for 4 with average bottle of wine, without dessert and coffee) did not reflect the experience, service or food. For those prices, one should expect more from the kitchen and the servers. With all that said, we are still interested in giving their brunch a try as this menu and the brunch reviews are what initially piqued our interest. Maybe they'll be better at brunch than they are at dinner. To be continued..... \r
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Pros: atmosphere
Cons: service, average food
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